I started this blog when I made up my mind to attend a business school. I continued blogging sharing my Queen's MBA experiences. And now, I share my thoughts on life after my MBA!
Moments of joy, failure, triumph, success….Hard work, determination, guts, sacrifice, luck. My story!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Queen's is No 1 - The Best remains the best

The Business Week Ranking of MBA schools 2006 is out and once againthe Queen's MBA program is No 1 in the International Segment( Outside the United States).

TREAT IT LIKE A JOBHow does Queen's do it? For starters, it divides students into groups of five or six"participants," with each group consisting of several different personality types andnationalities so that conflict is almost guaranteed. Unlike most B-schools, where new teamsform for each class, Queen's students belong to a single team for the whole program,much as they would on the job. Each team is assigned to a 15-by-20-foot "office" whereeach student has a cubicle and is expected to keep office-like hours. It's here thatstudents spend a majority of their non-class time, discussing projects and workingon assignments. And it's here where much of the magic happens. Students learn howto work as part of a team--resolving differences and solving problems--in a waythat can't be taught in the classroom. "Students are treated like professionals,and they're expected to treat it like a job," says Alan Ridgeway, a 2006 Queen's grad.

This experiment in reality learning has students and recruiters singing the school'spraises. But administrators aren't easing up. In late September, Dean DavidSaunders announced plans for a curriculum redesign that will allow students tocustomize their course loads based on their experience and career goals. ForSaunders, the decision to make the change was simply a question of listeningto the market. "We talked to employers and alumni and built off of their feedback," Saunders says